What the devil?

[eliyes]

So, a little over a month ago, I ordered some books via ALibris from a used book seller in the states. The books themselves were dirt cheap -- $1.11 a pop -- but the shipping brought that up to $40~ despite me getting a combined shipping discount.

They sent them all seperately.

This was a mistake.

I had ordered four out-of-print Star Trek novels by L.A. Graf, because I just wasn't finding them anywhere around here. This comprised of The Janus Gate trilogy, which is time travel-heavy, and a random Captain's Table book.

Everything arrived except the first book in the trilogy. *facepalm*

You can't read a time travel story without the beginning! You just can't. Time travel is confusing enough without missing pieces, and the solution won't make sense without the set-up. So, off to Amazon to see if they had it -- and they did, in Very Good condition, for 1¢. Seriously, one cent. That's ridiculous! $6.50 shipping, so I decided to go for it.

In response, the site created a möbius loop wherein checking out brought you back to your shopping cart without finishing the purchase.

That was last week.

Today, the missing book arrived, in a ragged, much stickered-over, badly fastened paper bag of of an envelope that didn't at all match the careful ecologically-friendly packages the rest came in.

Weird!

But I got it! :D


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Comments

[taichara]

Actually the Amazon shipping was going to be $6.50, their standard shipping rate for other sellers in the States.

But yeh, bizarre bloody shipment ...

[krillia.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I hypothesize the book itself went time-traveling. It went back in time to a point when there wasn't any ecologically-friendly posting materials to be found, causing the casing to evaporate in a paradox. The postal service repackaged it best they could and returned it to (our) present via a NATO portal.

*nods*

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I've edited my post accordingly.

*mutters about Customs being very attached to our mail*

[taichara]

It's a curse, alas.